Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Ennis House sells for $18 million
A piece of architectural history just traded hands in Los Feliz. The Ennis House — a stunning Mayan Revival-style home built by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright — has sold for $18 million.
It’s a sizable profit for the seller, billionaire Ron Burkle, who bought the pedigreed property for $4.5 million in 2011 and oversaw a significant restoration in the years since. Over the summer, he listed it for sale at $23 million.
The new owner is a limited liability company tied to cannabis entrepreneurs Robert Rosenheck and Cindy Capobianco. The couple founded CBD beauty brand Lord Jones, whose parent company, Redwood Holding Group, was acquired in August by Canadian pot company Crono for $300 million.
A striking temple-like construction, the hillside home ranks among the most revered estates in all of Los Angeles — and for good reason. Its exotic style has made it a destination filming location for films such as “Blade Runner,” “Rush Hour,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “The Karate Kid Part III.”
Wright designed the home in the 1920s for Charles and Mabel Ennis using between 27,000 and 40,000 precast concrete blocks. At the time, Wright was exploring concrete’s functional and artistic possibilities, The Times previously reported.
The interlocking blocks stir up a dramatic vibe, one that carries over from the eye-catching exterior into the expansive living spaces. Marble floors, ornate chandeliers, beamed ceilings, concrete columns, leaded glass windows and mosaic-tile finishes appear regularly throughout the two-story floor plan.
A voluminous dining room descends to a spacious living room, which opens through French doors to a terrace. Elsewhere are four bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a breakfast nook, center-island kitchen and billiards room.
The sweeping views were an additional draw for film crews over the years. Picture windows frame scenes of the city, and outside, patios and terraces enjoy the hillside setting. A guesthouse and swimming pool round out the 0.84-acre grounds.
Before Burkle, the iconic home was owned by the Ennis House Foundation, which sought $15 million for the property in 2009 before the billionaire investor bought it two years later for $4.5 million. Many of his renovations addressed damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Burkle, 66, built his fortune buying and selling supermarket chains such as Ralphs, Fred Meyer Inc. and Food4Less. Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.6 billion.
An avid real estate collector, he owns both of Bob Hope’s famed estates, shelling out $13 million for the comedian’s modernist home in Palm Springs in 2016 and $15 million for his English Traditional-style spot in Toluca Lake last year.
Listing Agents Branden and Rayni Williams of Williams & Williams could not be reached for comment.
